The present invention relates to athletic shin guards.
For many years players of certain sports such as soccer, hockey, field hockey, and others, have found it advantageous to protect their shins with shin guards. The shin guards used have generally included a protective barrier shaped generally to fit the forward facing portion of the shin. These shin guards have been worn either inside the players' socks or have been attached by means of straps which extend around the leg.
Some prior art shin guards have been constructed with a rigid outer shell backed by a softer foam rubber. However, such shin guards have not provided the maximum possible protection. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,205 there is described and claimed a modified, dense polyurethane of essentially linear structure containing unsatisfied hydroxyl groups, having a compression set of less than 15% and preferably less than 5%, an elongation break of at least 500%, and a recovery which is delayed after compression by at least 0.7 seconds. Further, the polyurethane disclosed in said patent has a hardness on the Shore 00 scale not exceeding 50 and preferably in the range of 0 to 10. Said patent declares that its modified dense polyurethanes may find application in sportswear such as shin pads.